antipode
Posts: 1787
Joined: 4/19/2004 Status: offline
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quote:
Has anybody actually met any of the Mistresses from India I ought to add than many of the scammers are after any information they can get out of you, including your IP address, which they can sell to botnet creators. Although most consumers get a changeable IP address from the DHCP their ISP provides, many of these addresses don't change often, especially if you leave your PC on all the time. Most email applications include the sender's IP address in the header. Typically, the scammer will want to chat - at some point, you'll mail the chat address - and they have your IP address. As many scammers use Yahoo, which lets them chat at an internet cafe without needing a chat application, Yahoo mail and chat are the first to avoid, with MSN/Hotmail/Live a close second. Google Mail (gmail) blocks the sender's IP address, and is probably the safest email application to use. Using an anonymizer, like Socksify, is good too - when I send you an email from D.C., the IP address will live in Houston, LA or NYC, and can't be traced back to my router. Putting a router, WiFi or otherwise, on your internet modem, even if you do not have a network, is helpful too, as routers have built in firewalls, use IP address translation, and many hackers are looking for a pathway into your MS Windows, which, if you have a router on your modem, they can't easily get to. I personally make sure I use an application that requires the other party to load software on their computer, like Skype. Making sure they own a computer, or that they have access to a system they can install software on, is a good way to weed out the chaff. Same thing with webcams - they don't have a webcam, they're fake. Most digital cameras, including the ones that are $30 at Wal-Mart, double as a webcam, and a simple webcam by itself costs $19, if that. If they have a million excuses why they can't use this and don't have that, they're fake, plain and simple.
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